I believe the picture is not really as complicated as it is made out to be, that in fact, the immediate and middle-term solutions are in certain respects more mundane than we have come to expect in a society used to rapid technological change and flashy marketing.On the other hand, technical innovation and even virtuosity will be required for us to equal or surpass our current standard of living in a more sustainable manner.

The Electron Economy:What is it?

The Swiss-based fuel-cell engineer and entrepreneur Ulf Bossel coined the term and concept “electron economy”.In my conversations with him, Ulf says that he came up with the notion of the “electron economy” to counteract the influence of Jeremy Rifkin’s “Hydrogen Economy” concept.In 2001-2002, Rifkin had been touring Europe gaining the attention of governments and environmental groups in support of using hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future.Despite being heavily invested in fuel cells as a technology, Ulf and the conference he organizes, the European Fuel Cell Forum, have repudiated hydrogen as a fuel for fuel cells (favoring other fuels like alcohols etc.) due to the net inefficiency of isolating and storing hydrogen (maximum efficiency of 25%).The end product of all fuel cells is electricity so with hydrogen fuel cells you would lose at least 75 joules of energy to generate the equivalent of 25 joules of electricity at the point of use.

Newer (hydrogen) and older competitors (fossil fuels) to electricity are less efficient and/or have environmental drawbacks.

We already have over a century of experience with electricity

Renewable energy sources (wind, sun, tides, geothermal heat) can usually most efficiently be converted to electricity rather than to other carriers like biofuels (solar cells, though currently expensive, are up to 400 times more efficient in converting sunlight into energy than plants).

We should focus on transitioning to a largely electric energy infrastructure with the probable exception of fuels for aviation and shipping, where biofuels will have advantages.

Increasing the energy-to-weight ratio and usefulness of electricity storage devices (batteries, etc.) is largely a technical and economic issue that will change for the better, as has been already witnessed in the portable electronics industry. Setting today’s battery capacity as an upper-limit to what can be done with batteries and electricity storage is a political move, not based on reasonable expectations for even modest technological improvements.

Even an economy fueled in part by fossil fuels can be made less environmentally damaging by increased use of electricity as an energy carrier and using electric energy conversion devices like electric motors.Using fossil fuels in highly efficient fuel cells and combined-cycle power plants to generate electricity is second-best to electricity generated by renewable sources but may play transitional roles to a carbon-neutral economy.

The Electron Economy:Why is this concept useful?

For some the notion of an electron economy will appear to be a re-statement of the obvious while for others it may appear to be a tendentious bit of advocacy for one set of technologies and energy sources over others.I believe however that using the “electron economy” concept can be a helpful guide for handicapping what will and should happen in an economy that takes sustainability and efficient use of resources seriously.

It is true that we already partially live in an electron economy as much of the energy we use comes to us via electricity.The areas where electricity is not the primary energy carrier are transport and heating, so an advancement of the electron economy would mean advancing the use of electricity in these areas where feasible and desirable.The primary focus of the electron economy concept is largely the transport sector but could also have applications in heating applications as well.

The concept is useful because it highlights how theoretical and actual energy efficiencies will eventually favor electricity over its two competitors within the arena of clean energy solutions:biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells.Currently, in the marketplace of ideas in places such as Treehugger or in the mainstream media, it appears as though it is a horserace between these alternatives, that it is just a matter of taste or arcane insight into technology that favors the choice of one over the other.And as indicated above, biofuels and even hydrogen may have a place in a sustainable energy future but they are not nearly as well developed nor as efficient as electricity and electric motors.

Even in the area of heating, where electricity has historically been more expensive and less efficient than the use of combustible fuels, the use of induction heating in cooking and ground-source heat pumps in space heating are two examples of how largely electric-powered solutions can either compete with or surpass heating from combustible fuels in the area of efficiency.And of course, generating electricity does not necessarily release greehouse gases into the atmosphere..

I’m intrigued to see what other solutions (biofuels from algae, highly efficient alcohol or biodiesel fueled fuel cells) come up, but the electron economy would appear to be the central energy infrastructure in a sustainable economy.Perhaps if you favor a more exotic solution, within the next century a newer,“sexier” energy carrier (plasma streams? Bose-Einstein condensates?) may arise.

In a future post I will highlight some of the marketing challenges that face those who seek to advance the electron economy or individual products that support its growth, as it is a concept that is both commonplace and yet based on technical principles that are slightly arcane.

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A very good article. The challenge for the electron economy is indeed to market itself. Right now it does take an educated and willing person to find out what is best at a domestic level.

There needs to be a real push towards an all electric home/building as ultimately we can generate electricity without any harmful emissions. This “education” must not only target the end user but also the building industry and the governments.

As for electricity in transport well there are a number of things I can’t figure out why we’re not doing them:
* Why are there more and more heavy goods vehicles on the roads when trains could do the job just as well and not cause as much CO2 emissions?
* Why aren’t there more electric buses (running off overhead cables) in cities?
* Why are we concentrating our efforts on replacement energy that burn stuff (which is inefficient) rather than on electric energy storage?

This interesting post tends to reinforce my view that there is a very strong role for anaerobic digestion as a major player in providing, what for those in this area is spoken of as a “carbon economy”, utilising renewable organic materials to create the energy which will feed the future “hydrogen” “electron (or whatever!), economy with efficient and safe energy delivery for all uses.

Combined cycle electricity production is good as well especially with the inclusion of carbon capture.

However, Anaerobic Digestion of waste organic material is also important in my view, although one seldom if ever hears it mentioned in discusions about future energy sources. Society would rather not think of such an unglamorous subject, so it is little publicised, but all should realise that our waste materials are a huge resource which we should in my view stop “wasting”.

In any event, throughout Europe we no longer have a choice, we are not going to be allowed to waste them. The UE has acted to pass regulations which require each nation to divert an ever increasing proportion of their waste (especially organic waste) away from landfill until no recyclable organic material is allowed to go to landfill.

So now the longstanding problems for anaerobic digestion are disappearing, of cost to install the AD plants relative to landfilling, and lack of premium markets for the power etc.

Anaerobic digestion is carbon negative, it tends to reverse climate change/reduce carbon emissions. It produces more energy (usually by a factor of about 5) than it consumes, and the methane it produces can be used for power generation or by further chemical porcesses be converted into bio-fuel (such as bio-diesel).

Pirlam,
Thank you for your comment and kind words. You are right to point out the challenges facing a person in our time as well as the marketing challenges ahead.

I will endeavor to offer answers some of the very important questions you ask as I continue my series on the electron economy.

Steve,
Thank you for comment and your work in support of anaerobic digestion. I do not think that an electron economy is a substitute for waste reduction and recovery, including the recovery of energy resources from human, animal and plant waste.

However it is my impression, from the estimates that I have seen, that the amount of methane, i.e. natural gas, that can be recovered from these waste streams is considerable but not nearly enough to cover the bulk of our energy needs. Bossel’s portrait of a sustainable energy economy sees a role for biofuels but they are secondary to what can be generated by wind and solar.

Would that it were otherwise, as, as you say, recovering methane from waste is a highly “green” process that will go some ways to reducing our carbon and overall ecological footprint. I am wondering what the most efficient use of the recovered methane would be: direct use in heating water for domestic and commercial use or fueling an approx. 60% efficient combined cycle power plant. I am not such a dogmatist that I know that the latter is the answer.

I am in full support of your efforts to promote anaerobic digestion but see it as complementary to but not a substitute for the capture of “primary” natural energy fluxes such as wind and sun.

[…] most transport uses, with a few modifications in technology and some large infrastructure projects, electric motors will drive most on-land transport and machine tools, with biofuels and hydrogen generated from clean electricity used for some specialty […]

[…] untapped solar resources to feed into its grid completes the puzzle of the vision for a “renewable electron economy,” whereby everything in the economy essentially works of electricity generated by clean […]

Good post. I learn something new and challenging
on sites I stumbleupon on a daily basis. It’s always interesting to
read articles from other writers and practice a little something from their websites.